20 But, my friend, I ask, “Who do you think you are to question God? Does the clay have the right to ask the potter why he shaped it the way he did?
21 Doesn't a potter have the right to make a fancy bowl and a plain bowl out of the same lump of clay?”
22 God wanted to show his anger and reveal his power against everyone who deserved to be destroyed. But instead, he patiently put up with them.
23 He did this by showing how glorious he is when he has pity on the people he has chosen to share in his glory.
24 Whether Jews or Gentiles, we are those chosen ones,
25 just as the Lord says in the book of Hosea,“Although they are notmy people,I will make them my people.I will treat with lovethose nationsthat have never been loved.
26 “Once they were told,‘You are not my people.’But in that very placethey will be calledchildren of the living God.”